Moon unit: update

Over the weekend I found that four people and their camping gear is too much for my Escort. With the petal to the metal, I was still losing speed going up some of the hills in Missouri. On the way to the tournament, both Jim and I hit the same deer lying on the highway. It made my right front wheel well smell like fish guts.

The nine of us from Team Ill.timate got back from the XIV annual Harvest Moon Ultimate Tournament in Fayetteville, Ark., to Jacksonville around 10 p.m. last night.

Distance: 447 miles

Time: 7 1/2 hours

The nine of us: Tim W., Tim S., Carlos, Shayne, me, (all of Jacksonville), Jim K., Colin C., Duffy, and Cory (all of Springfield). I think everyone had a good time despite the muddy fields and rain.

We got there about 2 a.m. Saturday morning and set up camp and went to bed. We got up and found the fields muddy and full of puddles. The first game, it was really sloppy and hard to run and cut. Saturday was sunny and the fields dried out a little bit throughout the day. Sunday we were on different fields that were a little bit better. Somehow I got muddier on the second day, though.

I got suddenly sick Saturday evening and slept it off — missing the party. Saturday night it rained most of the night. Some of the guys got wet in their tents. My tent stayed nice and dry. I got up at 7 Sunday morning. We did have to pack up in the rain, which isn’t very fun. We loaded up the cars and got the the field for the second day of games.

We won a game — partially on a technicality — on Sunday. It was the closest game and a lot of fun because of it.